live poker betting

windamon

ok,so iam playing live poker this weakend but one thing bothers me and i need some advice,all betting i asume is relevant to the pot size,but not always,my worry is this,i asume it will be a 9 ring game so here goes.when online before i placea bet i know whats in the pot, becoz the site tells me so, lets presume before it gts to me thee has been 4 limpers at 30/60, then a 3x raise and a caller and i call to see a flop.am i expected to keep the total in my head whats in the pot even b4 it gets to me in the next round of betting? it may get checked round to me so how do i know whats in the pot? even if i do bet in this round of betting and i get callers do i have to keep the total in my head? may be simple to expirienced plyrs so give me some advice plz. thank you.
regards windamon

NoseyBonk

I've never played live but must admit this is one of the things I find most daunting when I think about doing it (and you can't ask the dealer if it's no-limit). I usually struggle with maths in my head, and would prefer to sit there with a calculator! haha

Tikay10

Hi Wind,

Yes, I'm afraid you are going to have to try & concentrate.

Assuming it is No Limit Hold Em, you cannot ask the Dealer (or more precisely, he cannot answer your question) as to "how many chips are in the pot?".

He MIGHT oblige, but the rules are quite strict on this usually, unless it's a pub game or similar - the Dealer cannot tell you. He will "spread the pot" if you request him to, but he should not tell you the pot size.

He cannot even stack the chips which are in the pot into stacks of 5 or 10, by denomination, as this would, effectively, tell you the pot size.

In Pot Limit, it's completely different of course, & you can ask "what's in the pot please?" & he or she has to tell you. Incidentally, almost ALL Omaha & Omaha 8 or Better is Pot Limit when played Live, though some nutjobs do play a No Limit version Online. I've even seen folks playing PLO8 Bounty Hunters.

MattBates

Firstly relax and take your time and make sure you enjoy yourself. Live poker is daunting but pretty much everyone you speak to says it wasn't as bad and scary as you thought it was going to be.

You cannot ask the dealer to tell you the size of the pot but you can get the dealer to "spread the pot." This is where they spread out the chips in the middle so you can have a guess of what is in there as you will be able to see the bigger denomination chips. If the pot is say 6775 and you can see there is about 6-7k out there then that's fine, we don't have to be exact. No one will say OMG you bet 37% pot when you should of bet 43% pot.

If you find the maths side hard then I would always do rough maths to work things out so say it is 450 bet and 3 callers we can just go 3 x 500 as its easier to do in our head. With antes you can just add 10 x the ante when its 9 handed as its easier to do in your head.

windamon

so basically what you are saying is i keep all the numbers even huh? yeah, sounds good,thank you. blackpool here i come!

Tikay10

Well you don't need to be too precise with bet sizes. Just try & keep a rough idea of the pot size, & then work from there.

Mainly, though, as Matt said, just try to relax & enjoy it. Live poker really is the nuts.

Jac35

Is there any particular reason why the rule is there that they can’t tell you?
Extra work for the dealer is only reason I can think of

Tikay10

Jac35 said:

Is there any particular reason why the rule is there that they can’t tell you?
Extra work for the dealer is only reason I can think of

No idea. Maybe because it is deemed to be "assisting the player to make a decision". And the next question would be "how much to bet half the pot?".

Other players at the table, of course, CAN answer the question, and usually do.